Summer Reading: Celebrity Autobiography Edition

Bossypants Well, I started the summer reading binge with two celebrity autobiographies:  Bossypants by Tina Fey and Stories I Only Tell My Friends by Rob Lowe. Book-articleInline

Surprisingly, I enjoyed both of them.  They are actually very different books and both enjoyable for different reasons.  And anyone who has ever been a breastfeeding mother (or who has attempted to breastfeed with little success) will love Fey's chapter on attempting to breastfeed her child.

Both books are well written and both deal with people who don't come from a traditional show-biz background but who made their way into success, ultimately both ending up with NBC sitcoms – Fey with 30 Rock and Lowe on Parks and Recreation.

Of course both authors are the stars in their own stories so to speak, so if you don't like (or are not prepared to like) either Fey or Lowe you may not like their books. 

One little thing bothered me while reading Lowe's book, though.  He refers to a number of his apparently well-known movies and I have no recollection of seeing or hearing of any of them other than St Elmo's Fire and About Last Night.  I had never even heard of The Outsiders – neither the book nor the movie.  I grew up in Australia and wondered if it was possible that none of these movies ever made it to distribution there.  I checked with another Aussie friend who had also never heard of most of his movies.  Do others from different countries have similar "gaps" in their "Brat Pack knowledge"?  Or was I just a bookish young girl who didn't care much for the teen scene??

 

4 Comments

  1. anon

    "I had never even heard of The Outsiders – neither the book nor the movie. "

    Looks like you found your next assignment. Really a terrific book with a great backstory.

  2. Colin Miller

    Out of Rob Lowe's 1980s movies, I have seen:

    The Outsiders

    Class

    The Hotel New Hampshire

    St. Elmo's Fire

    Youngblood

    About Last Night…

    Masquerade

    Illegally Yours

    The only 2 that I would partially recommend are the two that you have seen (Outsiders was a let down despite the great cast and Coppola directing). So, it doesn't look like you missed much.

  3. Matt

    I liked the book _The Outsiders_ quite a lot when I was 12. I don't mean that as a criticism of it- it's a Young Adult book- but I haven't read it since and don't know if it would appeal to adults or not. The movie was okay, though if I remember right I was annoyed by the typical Hollywood "Now, with a happier ending!" bit. (Maybe I'm miss-remembering, but that's the recollection I have.)

  4. Christine Hurt

    I remember going to see The Outsiders with a big group of middle school friends and having to sit on the floor at the front the theater was so crowded. I basically remember it with a crick in my neck, but I think you probably caught from the book that all those young people are famous now.

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